| Follow us using: 
Fantasy news round-up, September 27, 2010
Plans to improve access to Pooh Bridge unveiled
Plans to improve access to a bridge made famous in the Winnie the Pooh books have been put forward. More than 35,000 people a year visit the wooden Pooh Bridge in Ashdown Forest, near Hartfield, East Sussex. The bridge was the venue for the game Poohsticks in AA Milne‘s stories about the honey-loving bear.
A lack of car parking and footpaths hinders visitors, however. East Sussex County Council said it had agreed with the landowners to improve this. These plans include a new car park improvements to paths.
Random House to create children’s apps with Smashing Ideas
Random House is working with digital media agency Smashing Ideas to create a series of children’s apps as it continues to expand its digital offerings.
Earlier this year, the publisher formed a small unit to create books tied to new and existing video game titles in an attempt to compensate for the weakness in other parts of the book business.
It will work with Smashing Ideas’ ePublishing group, which is headed by the co-creator and developer of the Alice for iPad.
Ursula Le Guin and Vonda McIntyre to contribute to Gulf Coast Benefit eBook
Edited by Phyllis Irene Radford and Tiffany Trent, Breaking Waves offers up glimpses of maritime splendour, poignancy, and humour through the works of poets, essayists, and Hugo and Nebula-award winning authors like Ursula Le Guin, Vonda McIntyre, David Levine, and more.
All proceeds from the sale of this anthology will go to the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. The eBook is available in numerous DRM-free formats from Book View Cafe for just $4.99.
HarperOne to release the CS Lewis Bible
HarperOne announced the forthcoming release of The CS Lewis Bible in October 2010. The CS Lewis Bible offers one of our most revered Christian thinkers as a companion to a reader’s reflection, meditation, and study of scripture.
"The CS Lewis Bible offers a unique way for readers to reflect upon important biblical passages. By pairing Lewis’s writing with scripture, this Bible offers readers the opportunity to gain fresh insight into Lewis’s writings, his own spiritual journey, and to the scriptures themselves," commented said Mark Tauber, SVP, Publisher.
Philip Pullman launches Oxford bid to become UNESCO World Book Capital
When UNESCO invited Madrid to become the inaugural World Book Capital in 2001, the idea proved so successful they decided to make it an annual honour. New Delhi, Antwerp, Montreal and the current Armenian winner, Yerevan, are among the 11 metropolises to have had a crack since then, and now Oxford is bidding to join them.
The bid was launched at the 400-year-old Convocation House in the city’s Bodleian Library Speaking at the launch of the bid at the 400-year-old Convocation House in the city’s Bodleian Library. Philip Pullman was joined by Inspector Morse writer Colin Dexter, local MPs, a gaggle of book fans and officials from Cultural Development Agency Oxford Inspires, who are steering the bid.
‘It’s always difficult to tell what chance of success we have. We don’t yet know what our competition will be and these decisions can sometimes be political. In the past we have had a strong bid for the European Capital of Culture which was overlooked – perhaps because the judges thought we already had plenty of culture," said Pullman, the award-winning author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, a University of Oxford graduate and, more recently, the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the hallowed empire.
Neil Gaiman to participate in the TwitChange celebrity auction
Neil Gaiman recently took to his Twitter account to announce his participation in TwitChange, the first ever celebrity Twitter auction. Pegged as “changing the world one tweet at a time,” TwitChange allows fans to bid on receiving tweets, retweets, and Twitter follows from their favourite celebrities. All proceeds of this charity auction go to aHomeInHaiti.org, which builds permanent housing for Haitian orphans.
While receiving a simple Twitter follow may not seem like a huge prize, being the lone literary selection thus far, Neil Gaiman announced via Twitter that the winner of his “mega package” auction will also win a one-on-one phone call with him, where he will read either a poem or a “short-short story.”
Fantasy series we recommend